The next generation of ideas and processes, like Web 2.0 or Education 2.0, as compared to the old boring 1.0 version

30,000 foot view

Seeing the big picture, like the view of everything down below from an airplane, which gives you perspective. Managers and executives like to take this view.

800-Pound Gorilla

A business that dominates their industry like Microsoft, Google or Facebook. There's an old joke: What do you do with an 800-pound gorilla? Anything he wants.

Action item

A task that needs to be done, but calling it an action item makes it sound more important.

Advise

"Used in official sounding business communication like ""Please advise which color flux capacitor you would like to purchase"".

Analytics

The statistical analysis of business data to help predict or improve future performance.

Around

"Used instead of ""with"" or ""on"". Examples: ""are we on track around the merger tomorrow?"" or ""I am struggling to get up to speed around the new accounting software"".

Ballpark figure

An estimate, an educated guess. A guesstimate.

Bandwidth

"A person's available time to complete something, like ""I don't have the bandwidth to handle another project this month.""

Best in breed

The top company in an industry.

Best practices

Optimal tactics and strategies.

Bizmeth

"Short for ""business method"".

Blocking and tackling

Basic tasks.

Blue sky thinking

Idealistic or visionary ideas - not always with practical application.

Boil the ocean

Taking on a very difficult or impossible task (the ocean can't be boiled).

Bottom out/ Bottom line

"Used as a verb to indicate that something needs to be done urgently - for example ""we need to get that bottom-lined before the end of play today.""

Branding

A company's marketing, related to the overall feeling evoked by the company's products, advertisements, and graphic design.

Brick-and-mortar

A business with real-world address that deals with people face to face, like a bank of grocery store. The opposite of an Internet business.

Bring Your ""A"" Game"

Be prepared, do your best.

Business landscape

The threats and opportunities facing a business.

Business process outsourcing (BPO)

Replacing in-house knowledge-based services IP research for patents; legal and medical services; R&D, and animation/design with labor from an outside firm, many times offshore (like in India).

Business-to-Business (B2B)

Selling to other businesses, not consumers.

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

Selling to consumers, not other businesses.

Buzzword compliant

Implies a product supports features simply because they are currently fashionable.

Change agent

A person who leads change within the organization. Sometimes an event or condition can even be a change agent.

Chase shiny objects

"Chasing anything that moves or looks new or enticing. Example usage: ""Stop chasing shiny objects and get down to the business of growing your business"".

Client engagement

A meeting.

Client-centric / customer-centric

Focusing on the customer to keep them happy and satisfied.

Communicate

"A fancy way of saying ""say"" or ""tell"".

Context

"Often used in place of ""background"" or ""information"". Used in conversation such as ""What's the context?"" or ""Give me some context""

Co-opetition

A business strategy based on game theory that is a combination of cooperation and competition, where companies that are in the same market work together in the exploration of knowledge and research of new products.

Core competencies

A business's main strengths or strategic advantages.

Cover all directions of the compass

Trying to make things acceptable for all stakeholders.

Deck

Powerpoint slides used for a presentation.

Deep dive

Getting into the detail.

Deliverable

Something that is owed and has to be done by a certain date.

Disambiguate

To clarify.

Downsizing

Cutting expenses by laying people off.

Drill-down

To look more closely

Drinking the Kool-Aid

Trusting in things said by authority figures. A fervent devotion to a certain company or technology.

Drop dead date

The absolute final possible date for deliverable.

Drop the ball

To make a blunder of fail.

Eating your own dogfood

Using a product yourself which you sell to others.

EBITDA

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Used to compare profitability between companies.

Elephant in the room

An important and obvious topic that everyone is aware of, but is not discussed because it would be uncomfortable.

Elevator pitch

A short summary of a product, service, or company, used to get your point across quickly (like in the time frame of an elevator ride). Many times given in person to a venture capitalist or angel investor to obtain funding.

End user perspective

What a customer thinks of a product or service or how they feel having to or after using a product service

Engagement

A project.

Enterprise sales

"""Enterprise"" is another name for a business. ""Enterprise Sales"" refers to complex sales dealing with large contracts with long sales cycles and multiple decision makers.

ETA

"Can mean ""Estimated Time of Arrival"" but also refers to your estimated time to completion of a task.

Event horizon

A turning point in the life of a company.

Eyeball driven

Depends on views for success. For example, websites that depend on ad (banner) impressions are eyeball driven.

Face time

Time spent meeting face to face with someone, not remotely by email/phone/text. Sometimes refers to just showing up at a location and interacting with people.

Facilitate

To conduct or oversee, like for a meeting.

Game changer

A person, company or event that radically changes a situation, usually with new and different ideas that stand out from the crowd.

Gantt chart

Shows the schedule of a project along with other details.

Going forward/Moving forward

A confident gesture towards the future, but generally vague on timing, which usually means it can be removed from a sentence with little or no effect on its overall

Granular

In excessive detail.

Guided

Used to abdicate responsibility for a decision, especially where the consequences of making a poor choice could be severe.

Hard stop

The absolute final possible ending time of a meeting.

Have the vendor in our pocket

Keeping a vendor / contractor paid

Heads Up

"Used to ask for a report/update on something, ex: ""Give me a heads up on this.""

Herding cats

A difficult chore.

High level

An abbreviated explanation of what would otherwise be an elongated report, including only the most pertinent details.

Hit the ground running

To start doing something that you have already prepared for so that you do not waste any time.

Holistic approach

The entire organization is considered in its processes and policies to sure the business is running at its full potential, instead of having strong and weak areas.

Home run

A big financial win. Example: The investor passed on the deal because he did not think it could be a home run.

Human capital

People

In the loop

Knowing what's going on and being kept informed

In the weeds

The view by the staff who actually does the work

Incent

To encourage

Interface

To communicate.

It’s not brain surgery

It is not hard to do.

it’s not rocket science

It is not hard to do.

Joined up thinking

A wider point of view from discussing the viewpoints of each organization and coming to an agreement or compromise.

Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO)

"eals largely in services that are highly ""knowledge-based"", such as: intellectual property research for patent applications; legal and medical services; training, consultancy, and research and development in fields such as pharmaceuticals and biotechnology; and animation and design

Lack of liquidity

If an investment is not liquid, it is very hard to sell.

Land and expand

A strategy to sell a small solution and then grow it within the client's environment

Lean forward and Lean back media

A Lean-forward medium has people actively engaged, like the Web where users search for things and look for content. TV, books, and magazines are examples of lean-back mediums because you just sit down and veg out.

Leverage

To use something to maximum advantage.

Light a fire under him/her

To motivate somebody.

Logistics

Commonly used by shipping companies (Fedex, UPS, etc.). The management of the flow of goods between the origin and destination. Involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, packaging, and security.

Long tail

A retail strategy of selling a few each of a large number of unique, less popular items. Examples include Amazon.com, Netflix, and eBay.

Low hanging fruit

Easy

Make it pop

Make it stand out.

Metrics

Ways to measure something.

Mindshare

The development of consumer popularity and awareness by using advertising and promotion. Brands compete for mindshare.

Mission critical

If something is mission critical, its failure will result in the failure of business operations.

My two cents

Giving my opinion

net-net

"Meaning ""get to the point"". Also, an investing technique where a company is valued only on its net current assets.

New economy

A global economy based on high growth industries such as advanced technology (Internet) and biotech.

Next generation

The next stage or version of a product, service, or technology.

Off the shelf

In-stock, not custom made.

Offshoring

Also known as Offshore outsourcing, or something being offshorable.

On the fritz

Broken.

On the radar

When you are aware of something. Well-known.

Open the kimono

Transparency and full disclosure.

Operationalize

To define an abstract concept in such a way that it can be practically measured.

Out-of-pocket

A non-reimbursable expense you need to pay for yourself. Also used to mean somebody is unavailable.

Paradigm shift

A revolution in thinking. A transformation from one way of thinking to another.

Pass the monkey

To pass the responsibility for a problem to someone else.

Pick the low-hanging fruit

Going for the easiest option.

Ping

To contact somebody, like by email, text, or phone.

Procurement

Buying things.

Pushing the envelope

Going outside normal boundaries to achieve a target or goal

Raft of measures

A collection of proposals or schemes

Reaching Out

To contact

Reinvent the wheel

To duplicate a method already created by others.

Return on Investment (ROI)

How much profit was made in relation to how much capital was invested. ROI (%) = Net profit ($) / Investment ($) * 100 %

Reverse fulfilment

Processing returned products.

Rightshoring

Putting jobs where they belong. For example outsourcing the less important processes overseas and keeping the complex work in-house.

Rightsizing

Cutting expenses by firing people. Downsizing.

Run the numbers

Do the calculations.

Sandwich method

A way of providing feedback where you positive feedback (a compliment) in the beginning and end but in the middle give constructive criticism. Also known as the hamburger method.

Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX)

Legislation enacted in 2002 to protect shareholders in all public companies after the Enron, WorldCom, Tyco International, and Adelphia financial scandals, with the goal of eliminating accounting errors and financial fraud.

Seamless integration

Making a change without causing any errors, complications, or interruption in service.

Shovel-ready

The planning is done work can start right away, as soon as funding or approval is granted.

Singing from the same sheet music

Showing a united front in public.

Skin in the game

Showing confidence by investing your own money in something, instead of just getting paid to do it.

Solutions provider

A vendor.

Spinning the plates

Multi-tasking

Sustainability

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Sweating the assets

Getting every last drop of usability and value out of of the assets you already have, like by cutting costs and virtualizing.

SWOT Analysis

A strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats in a project or business venture. Generates ideas and strategic goals, and helps match the company's resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates.

Synergy

Two business participants or elements working together to produce an effect greater than the sum of their individual effects.

Take it offline

Talk about it later

Talk the talk, walk the walk

If you say you can do something, demonstrate you can do it.

Tear down the silos

Remove barriers

The 80-20 rule

Pareto's Principle - Focus on the 20% of something matters because 20% of something is responsible for 80% of the results. So for example 80% of an assignment can be finished in 20% of the time, 20% of the defects cause 80% of the problems, and 20% of the people in a country own 80% of the wealth.

Think outside the box

Novel or creative thinking where you think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective.

Touch base

"To contact or speak with. ""Let's touch base on Friday about the new computer software.""

Unique selling proposition (USP)

Something that differentiates a product from the competition.

Value proposition

A statement explaining why a customer should buy the company's product or service.

Value-add

Something that improves a value or service.

Vertical market

A subset of a larger industry which meets the needs of a particular industry. A niche market.